Trump: Debt Deal 'Launched Obama's Presidency'

Donald Trump says although the GOP tried hard to reach a productive debt-reduction compromise they didn’t hammer out a good deal. The billionaire real estate mogul also told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Wednesday the biggest problem with the agreement is provisions will be in place past the 2012 presidential elections — and “it launched Obama’s presidency.”

“I think the Republicans tried hard, but they didn’t make a good deal — they did very little cutting,” Trump said. “But the worst thing of all — and they could have had, and it was the one thing Obama wanted — he wanted to bring it past the election because if they had this come due again before the election, he could not have been re-elected. And why they agreed to that, I have no idea.

“But in addition to that — very little cutting — and of course, they don’t even talk about the Bush tax cuts because in ‘13, they expire, so taxes are going to go through the roof,” he said. “So I don’t understand — you know, people are saying the Republicans made a good deal. I don’t think they made a good deal — and people are finding out they didn’t make a good deal, Greta.”

Van Susteren asked Trump what he would have done to make the debt deal more substantive.

“First of all, I would have had Obamacare as part of it — I would have gotten rid of Obamacare,” Trump said. “I have people that are going to close up their businesses, friends of mine. So I would have gotten rid of that — and I would have gotten much bigger cutting.”

Trump reiterated that GOP leaders dropped the ball forging an agreement before the 2012 presidential elections.

“They really didn’t get it — they didn’t make the right deal,” he said. “And they really launched Obama’s presidency because this is not going to come up again before his president — it comes up after the presidency. What are they doing?”

Trump said that, in reality, the Democrats came out ahead.

“Well, I actually think that the Democrats made a better deal than the Republicans because the cuts weren’t deep, like they were supposed to be, and the big thing was the presidential race gets — you know, really, I mean, he can win this race much easier now,” he said. “Look, the Republicans, to really do it right, have to take over the presidency. They could have taken over the presidency if they made this a little bit shorter, so instead of coming due after the election, it came due before the election.”